Laois Senior Hurling Championship Report
CASTLETOWN V RATHDOWNEY
At O'Moore Park Portlaoise 28/6/2003 7.45pm
At O'Moore Park on Saturday June 28th last the second game of the Senior
Hurling Championship saw Rathdowney take on last years Champions Castletown.
The champions who had lost their first round clash to Portlaoise on the 18th
June by the minimum margin got back to winning ways when they won out on
a convincing scoreline of 1-11 to 0-8.
Castletown opened the scoring immediately after the throw-in when on 55 seconds
David Cuddy in the No.14 shirt though operating at midfield shot their first
point of the day. Castletown added a second point a minute later from Barry
McKelvey . Then Rathdowney opened their account with a pointed free from
Tom Drennan. After 11 minutes of action Castletown's James Hooban, who had
seen midweek action with the Laois U-21 Hurlers added another point to restore
the Castletown lead to two points.
In the 12th minute Rathdowney's Joe Gilmartin and Castletown's David Cuddy
exchanged points. Then a free from the 20m line for Castletown in the 14th
minute was converted by David Cuddy to leave the score standing at Castletown
0-5 to Rathdowney 0-2 ahead. Then in the 17th minute Castletown's Brian Ferns
added another score to leave them in a commanding four point lead.
A foul on Christy Brown by a Castletown clubman soonafter was converted by
the same player and now just three points separated the sides. In the 28th
minute Rathdowney narrowed the gap to two points when Enda Maher struck from
beyond the 45m line. Joe Gilmartin left the minimum between the sides a minute
later when a sideline puck by him went over the crossbar. So as they sides
entered the dressing-rooms at the break it was still all to play for.
HALF-TIME: Castletown 0-6 Rathdowney 0-5
Castletown's Barry McKelvey had an excellent chance of a score early on in
the 2nd half when he went on a magnificent solo-run only to be stopped in
his tracks by a magnificent block by Pat Mahon. Rathdowney then started to
press for scores but to no avail. After three minutes of the half a sideline
cut by Rathdowney went narrowly wide. Another sideline cut two minutes later
also went wide of the target . And in the 38th minute Rathdowney finally
got a score when a foul on Joe
Kilmartin saw the resulting free converted by Christy Brown levelling the
game for the first time.
A minute later Castletown restored their lead when Cyril Cuddy put over a
point from the centre-back position. In the 44th and 50th minute fouls on
Castletown players saw David Cuddy convert both resulting frees. And after
50 minutes of action the scoreline stood at Castletown 0-9 Rathdowney 0-6.
Brian Delaney then narrowed the gap to two points for Rathdowney.
Castletown added another point before in the 52nd minute Castletown started
to take over and were rewarded when a move from John Palmer in centrefield
lobbed the ball in and Barry McKelvey broke the ball down to David Cuddy
who with his first strike on the ball sent it to the back of the net. Rathdowney
added their final score of the day a minute later when Enda Maher converted
a free. Castletown 1-10 Rathdowney 0-8.
Castletown put the icing on the cake then when in the 55th minute of action
they sealed victory when midfielder John Palmer pointed from play .
